NYC Midnight Flash Fiction: Round 2

Round two is over! Okay, by the time you read this it will have been over for a while, but my relief is the same. I found out my Round 1 score on Wednesday before the competition and was SUPER EXCITED to see I’d come in 3rd! The top 15 people are awarded points with first place receiving 15, 2nd 14, and 3rd (me) 13! The highest combined scores after the first two rounds move on to the third round so I’m well positioned to move on. Woo!

To combine with my excitement, I was nervous about round two. It had the unfortunate timing of starting while I was at a wedding. So at 11, I stopped dancing to look at my phone and saw the wonderful, glorious prompt.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Location: A secret lab
Object: A mouse

Hallelujah! This could not be better. If you’ve been a fan of the blog for a while, you’ll know I adore historical fiction. And because the era is not specified, I could write about the 20s! I went back to dancing at the wedding, confident I could deal with the writing on the way home on Saturday.

While my wonderful husband and I got ready to leave in the morning, he helped me craft some ideas. We came up with a plan for a secret lab and throwing a mouse in was no problem. So on the way home, I pulled out my laptop and in about a half hour, typed up the story. I put it away for a few hours (while we listened to a football game on the radio), pulled it out for some quick editing, and sent it to Beta readers. By the time I got home, I had some feedback and did some small tweaks. A little more response trickled in on Sunday but to be honest, the story I submitted was 80% written in the car.

It was a surprisingly calm weekend as far as writing goes. I know I lucked out with that prompt. I hope I do well and can move on to round three. Though I’m not counting on ever getting a prompt that I like that much again. I’ve got to be ready for romance or political satire. Those would be a lot harder.

I get the results of round two on October 21st at midnight. Round three starts at midnight on the 23rd. This is bad timing for me again because I’m obligated to be at a football event with my in-laws on the 24th. (As a side note, I hate football. All football references in this post are to demonstrate the only bad thing about fall to me and how it ruins my life.) This will be a challenge.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

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NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge: Round 1

Phew! Round one is over! For those of you who didn’t see my earlier post, I decided to participate in the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Competition. Round one started on August 1st and was over by midnight on August 2nd. In that time, participants had to write a story no longer than 1000 words in length that complied with the three prompts.

I woke up early-ish (8 AM) on Saturday to see my prompts. Honestly, it could have been worse. A lot worse. I got:

Genre: Action/Adventure
Location: an underwater cave
Object: a dumbbell

Huh. Interesting. I started out right away writing a piece about a drug smuggler in an underwater cave. That was a quick one, taking maybe two hours. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the other 15 people in group 27 were also probably thinking along the same lines. It was time for some innovative thinking. Which is where Engish-major husband is very helpful.

“What do you think of when you think of action stories?”

Superheroes!

So I was off on story #2 about a superhero and her liar. It came out as an origin story and I really liked it. By noon on Saturday, I sent my first drafts off to a bunch of volunteer beta readers and went for a run. I did minor edits until dinner and then let myself take the night off with some friends. I was well ahead of where I wanted to be.

Day two was editing, editing, and more editing. I edited both stories down to a final draft (nicknamed ‘cocaine story’ and ‘fish story’). Both were line and content edited and under the 1,000-word limit. And then I had to pick. Talk about nerve-wracking! Shish.

After talking it through with my husband and my betas, I chose the superhero story. I liked it a lot. I’m not going to post it here because I think with 200 more words, it’s something I would want to pursue publishing. Heck, I might try to publish the other one, too. It’s been a long time since I did a publishing push and I have a lot of pieces about ready for it. Time to put on my big girl pants.

If you’re doing NYC Midnight, good luck in round two! If you’re not, think about it. I was skeptical, but this has been a really cool experience. I definitely want to look into doing it again.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge: I’m IN!

This will be a short post, I apologize. As you read this, I hope to be hiking in the Smokey Mountains with my husband but I didn’t want to ignore my blog while I’m on vacation.

Fellow writing blogger Jen at Jen’s Pen Den has posted previously about her participation in the NYC Midnight writing challenges. I first saw her posts on this about a year ago and thought “I don’t have the time to do that.” Truly, I don’t have the time to do anything. I don’t have the time to knit all my friends baby blankets, train for triathlons, go back to school, or run a book blog. OH WAIT. When you decide something is important, you make time for it. So I decided to make time for writing. I’m signed up!

I’ll be taking part in the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge. The first round is July 31 – August 2 and I already know I’ll be sleeping in late on August 1 because I have plans with my mom. But I’ll make the time! I’m going to make writing a priority. The challenge is to write a story under 1000 words with the given genre, location, and object in the challenge. I think I’m up for it. Everyone participates in the first two rounds and will receive feedback from the judges. That’s the part I’m nervous about! But, to be honest, they’re not seeing my best-best work. They’re seeing 48 hours of blood, sweat, and finger cramps. My best is yet to come.

So what do you say: ARE YOU WITH ME?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!